By John German

PRESIDENT NIXON declared War on Drugs in 1972, and, a dozen years later, President Reagan followed, cheered on by nearly every official, high or petty, throughout the land. President Bush even ventured to promise victory in this campaign, and President Clinton seems ready to prosecute this war with even greater vigor. Yet hardly anyone ventures to ask why this war has not long since been won. It has certainly cost enough. Is the mightiest nation on Earth unable to get the better of a few plants, pills and powders?

The simple fact, however, is that the War on Drugs cannot be won, because it does not exist. The phrase is, at best, a shorthand for a ruthless and sanctimonious campaign against drug users, ranging from the desperate heroin addict to the casual marijuana smoker and encompassing about one-fifth of our fellow citizens who prefer "dangerous" drugs over the state-sponsored alcohol and tobacco. Worse yet, the correct historical parallel for this "war" is not armed conflict between nations — or even civil strife —but state persecution of religious dissidents like the pogroms of Czarist Russia or the Inquisition of imperial Spain.

To make this point clear, let us imagine that a modem state has decided to suppress Unitarianism and compel everyone — for his own good, of course — to believe in the Holy Trinity. The initial stages of the persecution proceed smoothly. Most of the clergy and other leaders are soon rounded up, and the gathering places of the now forbidden sect are swiftly closed. Public obduracy guarantees martyrdom, and thousands of the formerly faithful openly recant their errors and hasten to denounce the unregenerate to the authorities. With the well-earned penalties for their own Unitarianism now conveniently forgotten, some especially ardent penitents can even find employment as official "counselors" to those still tempted by the pernicious doctrines of Emerson and Jefferson.

Yet, despite this initial success, a stubborn and resourceful underground springs up where the devout continue to worship and even to make some converts among those disenchanted with the orthodox creeds. As the moral bankruptcy of the established churches becomes ever more apparent, the number of these converts and their contributions, both material and spiritual, to the proscribed cult begin to increase alarmingly.

Since conventional law enforcement, however draconian, has failed to halt these determined devotees in their unsanctioned pursuit of salvation, the state, egged on by its orthodox clergy, adopts new tactics. Multitudes of informers arc hastily recruited and lavishly rewarded. Thousands of agents are hired, outfitted with a superficial knowledge of the forbidden faith and sent out to tempt others into revealing their misbelief, perhaps by offering to buy or even to sell a Unitarian hymnal or pamphlet. Those apprehended can sometimes be tortured into giving away their co-religionists. But prompt cooperation leading to the capture of a minister or "kingpin", as they have come to be called, can mitigate otherwise frightful penalties.

When even these tactics do not suffice, the state redoubles its efforts to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth and stamp out this "thought-crime". Conversations must be constantly monitored to detect any references to the outlawed creed. The houses of suspected heretics must be invaded swiftly and without warning, lest they destroy their seditious books before a search can uncover them. Indeed, the slightest hint of heresy justifies the closest surveillance, and privacy is a thing of the past. Even seemingly true believers must undergo random doctrinal examinations to show that they have not become tainted, and everyone is guilty until proven innocent.

AT THIS juncture, we may substitute "drugs" for Unitarianism, since it is every bit as difficult to demonstrate that our licit drugs are physically any less harmful than our illicit ones as it is to find an empirical proof for the existence of the Trinity. The attempt to legislate conformity in this totally subjective area has inexorably required law enforcement practices which are essentially those of an inquisition operating in a police state.

In closed societies like Iran, where dissidents must choose between the private torments of forced conversion and the public agonies of martyrdom, religious persecutions can have impressive short-term results. In the West, where other options remain, such efforts are far more likely to bring us a deeply divided and corrupt society, where the appearance of orthodoxy is everything, and intelligence, humanity and common sense count for almost nothing.